Times Crossword 25,272 – time for a nice cup of tea?

Solving Time: About 35 minutes but I felt sluggish; I don’t think this really is a terribly difficult crossword. It is well-crafted though, and I much enjoyed it. it has some very slick surface readings.

I had this blog all done and ready to post by 1.30am, but couldn’t get the Livejournal website to respond until now.. sorry!

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–).

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1 half-board – inflexible = HARD containing L + F + BOA. Referring to pension as in demi-pension..
6 assam – tricky, this: “Mum has” = MA’S, it (= sex appeal) = SA, all rev. Assam has the distinction of being the only place in the world outside Southern China to which tea is a native plant.
9 seminar – *(REMAINS). A very neat clue
10 crouton – another one I found hard to parse: *(CORN) containing available = OUT
11 yea – YEA(R)
12 discordance – DISCO + DANCE containing R
14 grouch – GROU(P) + CH. Only knew this as a noun, but as the saying goes, “They ain’t no noun that can’t be verbed.”
15 baluster – *(LATE BUS) + (PASSENGE)R
17 assailer – most of state = ASSER(T) containing trouble = AIL. Not a word in very common use!
19 blimey – BY containing LIME. Raised a smile, of sorts
22 showerproof – SHOP ROOF containing WE + R
23 nob – “Turned against” = ON rev, + B(OLSHEVIK)
25 slipper – dd, a reference to the footwear sort of mule
27 earlies – (P)EARLIES. My last in, simply because I didn’t think of the word in a vegetably context. I understand there are not just earlies, but second earlies too.. potatoes, that is. And yes, vegetably is a word.
28 pagan – P(RISO)N containing commander = AGA.
29 started on – STAR + TE(RM) + DON
Down
1 hussy – HUSS + Y.
2 lumbago – O GAUL rev., containing doctor = MB. I suppose “checked” works as a containment indicator, more or less
3 Benedictine – BE + NINE containing order = EDICT. Another very neat surface reading. In the (highly unlikely) event of my ever taking holy orders, one that specialises in producing alcoholic drinks would definitely be my choice
4 hidden: seek & ye shall find
5 doctoral – “docked” = DOCT + ORAL
6 ado – sAw DuO
7 satinet – SAT + IN + E(LEGEN)T
8 Monterrey – assets = MONEY containing TERR(OR). I was familiar with Monterey (in California) but not Monterrey (in Mexico)
13 double first – DOUBT containing *(LIFERS).
14 grasses up – greens = GRASSES, dearer = UP. A slang term for betray, commonly used by the lower sort of criminals, M’lud
16 Hesperus – HE’S PERU’S.. Hesperus is the “Evening Star” but is not in fact a star at all, but refers to the planet Venus. And he should not be confused with his brother Phosphorus. No, really. Look at the link.
18 sloping – tramp = SLOG containing leg = PIN. Another late one in, I was sure it must have leg = ON in there, somewhere. No cricket references today!
20 mankind – MAD containing N + KIN
21 bodega – AGE + DOB (date of birth) rev. A bodega I always think of as a store or warehouse but it can be a shop too
24 bison – BON(Y) containing IS. The bison is the largest surviving European land animal, which despite extensive efforts, we have not quite managed to exterminate completely.
26 pen – explicit = (O)PEN

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

40 comments on “Times Crossword 25,272 – time for a nice cup of tea?”

  1. Put endives without really thinking through the clue which made 13 down difficult until the error corrected.
    Experienced the same problem as reported yesterday, no checked date on home page but available on the last checked date, strange!
      1. He/she means, the little calendar thingy on the rhs of this page doesn’t have today’s date underlined. It is to do with the way he/she is accessing the page. Simply reloading it will do the trick, no need to go to yesterday..
      2. The homepage has a calendar showing the days of the current month, where a blog is available the date is underlined and clicking on gets the blog. Several times recently the current day has not been underlined but when accessing the previous day it does appear to be available.
        In other words to access today’s blog I have to click on yesterday and then click on today.
  2. I’m having a very bad week as for the third consecutive day my solving time was around 60 minutes and I needed a little help to complete the grid. And like yesterday it was the SE corner that did for me, the 27 and 21 intersection specifically although I eventually thought of EARLIES for myself whilst in the process of cheating. I wasted ages trying to justify ‘turnips’ here.

    I was annoyed not to think of BODEGA; it usually comes with a reference to wine in which case I’d have been onto it immediately.

    My last understood was SLOPING where I also wasted time trying to accommodate ON and then wondering if ‘L’ was a legitimate abbreviation for ‘leg’ (as in ‘Leg Before Wicket’) and if so, how SOPING could possibly = ‘tramp’. Failure to spot how this clue worked left me with some doubts about the validity of my solution as ‘move aimlessly’ is not a meaning of ‘slope’ that I was aware of. Any sloping off I have ever done in my life was always with the specific aim of getting away from something I wanted no part of without drawing attention to myself.

    Did anyone else’s grey squares print with a blue tinge today?

    Edited at 2012-09-19 06:33 am (UTC)

  3. 35 minutes during a wakeful (just) middle of the night, time probably including the odd doze. SLOPING took a majority share in the wasted time bank, partly because of the possibilities for “leg” but also because I couldn’t stretch it to mean aimless wandering. I still can’t, but await an example from someone who can.
    A very famous book (admittedly in a fairly small circle) is Cruden’s Concordance. The man allegedly drove himself mad indexing every word in the Authorised Version of the Bible. It was amusing (at least to someone who found the Shortbread Eating Primer amusing) to see CROUTON and DISCORDANCE in close proximity.
    CoD to HESPERUS ahead of BLIMEY
  4. And another one held up forever by SLOPING. Needed a dictionary look up in the end, having sussed PIN (vs ON … stONing?). The result from ODO:

    2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] British informal: move in an idle or aimless manner: I had seen Don sloping about the beach.

    And that was good enough for me. But this was a bit of a fight. Even the light-inclusive at 4dn was hard to find!

      1. This is a bit like the story in Wittgenstein about the schoolboy who learned about the active/pssive distinction and who asked the teacher which of these the verb “to sleep” was.
      2. I think it’s more an ‘adverbial of location’. In the same way, if someone said, ‘I saw Don aimlessly wandering’, you might want to ask him ‘Where?’ – if you cared for Don, at any rate.

        Edited at 2012-09-19 08:33 am (UTC)

  5. 28m for this. Tricky but most enjoyable. Very little went in from the definition without understanding wordplay, which is always the mark of a fine puzzle. It was also tricky without recourse to obscurity.
    BODEGA and EARLIES were my last in, and took a few minutes. Eventually I thought of “DOB” and that unlocked it. I only knew the potatoes from a past puzzle.
    Exactly the same problems as Jack with SLOPING.
  6. Similar story here. Ran through it at a reasonable pace but then spent another 5 minutes puzzling over EARLIES (and I really should have thought of “pearlies” much sooner) and SLOPING where a fixation on “L” and “ON” stopped me seeing “PIN” for some time

    Good puzzle I thought with some excellent surface readings.

  7. 25 minutes, with 10 of those spent on BODEGA /EARLIES. I really should have not taken so long with these as I am forever passing on the piece of horticultural advice “Plant late potatoes early, early potatoes late,” not that anyone grows late potatoes these days.

    SLOPING: I can still hear my father telling me “Don’t get sloping off” while I was supposed to be helping him with the weeding.

    BENEDICTINE. There are parts of East Lancashire where sales of this liqueur are well above the national average. It is thought to be a legacy of the First World War, when soldiers joining, say, the Accrington Pals developed a taste for the stuff in France. I am told you can still order “Benny & Hot” (Benedictine and hot water) in Burnley pubs and clubs. Those who don’t like it have thought up some fanciful (and unprintable) interpretations of the letters D.O.M. that appear on each bottle.

    MONTERREY I’m another who thought it was spelt Monterey, but then most of my knowledge of such places comes from American popular music.

  8. 37 minutes with last in the unknown SATINET after the BODEGA/EARLIES crossing had fallen. COD to SLOPING for all the reasons given, plus it sounds such an aimless type of word.
  9. A pondersome 51 minutes. Held up at the end by Monterrey and, which I should have got far sooner, Hesperus. A resistant little number. I like the pension arrangement – it deserved a neater clue.
  10. Yet another DNF and as I am on a train this time after an hour. Stuck because I didn’t connect OUT with available and still not convinced by this. Like others too still can’t see SLOPING as ‘moving aimlessly’. A few weeks back I believed I’d made real progress in my general solving capabilities but depressingly regular DNFs lead me to conclude retrogression rather than progression. I shall persevere for a few weeks more I guess but really need to be under the 40 minute barrier and finishing more often to keep enthusiastic. My COD to 1ac for neat misdirection of pension.
      1. Ah yes thanks. I construed that as ‘released’ which I should have then seen as ‘available’. Even more depressed now!
  11. Not easy. Around 60 mins for me with some resort to aids at the end. The same clues seem to have detained most of us, SLOPING, EARLIES and BODEGA being my LOIs, in that order. As others have said, lots of good surface readings. I particularly liked HALF-BOARD and HESPERUS. I don’t think of a HUSSY as necessarily being a tart (=prostitute), but then I suppose neither is a tart (if you see what I mean). Anyhow, a check in the dictionary to confirm that a huss is a type of fish ruled out any other solution.
      1. Apologies, that was me, forgot I was not logged in. I grow earlies but couldn’t get past turnips.
  12. Pleased to be all correct today after guessing Sloping. Wasn’t convinced it meant “moving aimlessly” and didn’t understand the wordplay. Thanks for the enlightenment Jerry.
    FOI Pen. Benedictine and Hesperus from wordplay. Thought Seminar and Bodega were particularly good. Not sure I’d have got Nob if it hadn’t been part of the wordplay in a clue last week.
  13. 24:55 here, held up for about 10 minutes at the end on SLOPING, which I thought (like nearly everybody else) had to contain ON for leg. Before that EARLIES and BODEGA came together, but apart from those three the rest of it was fairly easy.
  14. Was anyone caught like me at the north west corner inking in TANGY for 1Down? Caused me many a precious minutes until SEMINAR disabused me
  15. 17:32 and very enjoyable indeed so thanks to the setter.

    Like many others it took me a while to shake the conviction that 18 had to have “on” in there somewhere. Crouton from def and checkers alone so thanks to Jerry for the explanation.

    Re Benedictine: Burnley Miners’ Club is the world’s most prolific consumer of the stuff. Our Legal Director hails from those parts and usually brings in a bottle at Christmas so we can “enjoy” the “delights” of the aforementioned Benny and hot, which he also consumes at Turf Moor.

    1. Never have the words “You learn something every day” been more relevant than at this moment. The concatenation of Burnley Miners Club and Benedictine liqueur is mind blowing.
  16. About a 20 minute clockwise solve here, ending with STARTED ON, which I knew had to be correct, but the wordplay eluded me for a few minutes. SLOPING from wordplay only, same with HALF BOARD, both of which seem to be UK-centric, so unknown to me. COD to BLIMEY, although any mention of HESPERUS brings a smile when I remember Groucho Marx singing ‘Lydia The Tattooed Lady’, whose inked decorations are recited in the song, including ‘…and The Wreck of the Hesperus, too!’. I don’t really remember the rest of the song, though. Regards.
  17. A very enjoyable 40 minutes. Held up by BODEGA (my COD) and EARLIES (my LOI). Loved the “pension arrangement” at 1a (my eureka moment).
  18. Solved this early, commenting late – 13 minutes, EARLIES, SLOPING and HESPERUS from wordplay, but don’t think they could have been anything else. ASSAM from definition.
  19. 10:18 for a most enjoyable puzzle – my compliments to the setter. I particularly liked 10ac (CROUTON).

    I stuck on EARLIES/BODEGA for a while, and was quite relieved when they eventually fell.

    I didn’t know that meaning of SLOPING: I’ve always thought of “sloping off” as being furtive but deliberate (rather than aimless).

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